Zach's 120 Gallon Reef Resurgence

[zachxlutz]

WE HAVE PAINT!

Last night and earlier today I put a couple of coats of gloss black paint on the plumbing and on the back of tank. It really turned out great aside from a few areas on the glass that I apparently didn't clean well enough. I'll be lightly scuffing those areas and applying a little more paint to hide the imperfections. The blue on the valves offsets with the black and creates a visually pleasing aesthetic that shouldn't be too obtrusive when viewing the tank from the sides once it's in place in the dining room.

Every day we get a little bit closer to bringing the tank inside and getting things going. I'm getting very excited!

 

[BigDave]

Very nice!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Looks good!

What are your plans for this tank? Any particular fish or inverts or plants?

 

[zachxlutz]

Looks good!

What are your plans for this tank? Any particular fish or inverts or plants?

I don't have a plan yet for what to keep but I'm planning far enough ahead that I should be able to keep whatever my heart desires. My girlfriend wants an anemone and clown fish so that's on the list but everything else is open and up in the air.

That being said, the project is on hold for a bit while I wait for a new tank to be delivered. I'm just not happy with the scratches on this one from the previous owner. I'll re-drill the holes for the bulkheads in the same spots so I should just be swapping all the plumbing over and then bringing it inside... Fingers crossed.

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Good call on the new tank!

The bulb anemone is the most durable, and gorgeous. The common clowns are the least mean of the clownfish. Get one small and one big and you should have a mating pair.

Live rock and sand? I love farmed Florida rock, like Gulf Live Rock-they have shipping-included deals. But there's tons of choices.

 

[zachxlutz]

Good call on the new tank!

The bulb anemone is the most durable, and gorgeous. The common clowns are the least mean of the clownfish. Get one small and one big and you should have a mating pair.

Live rock and sand? I love farmed Florida rock, like Gulf Live Rock-they have shipping-included deals. But there's tons of choices.

Thanks for the info on the anemone and clowns. I'm sure I'm going to be doing a LOT more research on the livestock additions before we make any purchases. I honestly haven't even put much thought into it beyond what I stated previously. I'm tackling this project in phases, as it allows me to focus my efforts on each individual task and really do the best job possible with it. I can't wait to get the new tank, drill it, leak test and then bring it inside.

The live rock, which was dead rock from a previous tank that had been sitting for a couple of years in a storage container, is currently cycled and waiting in a brute can for the tank to be set up. I'll be using a mix of old rinsed sand and a couple of new bags of live sand for the sand bed in the display.

I'm thinking about doing a slightly deeper sand bed in the 'fuge with about 3 inches of the dark "miracle mud" with a thin layer of heavier sand on top to keep it from being stirred up to much.

 

[zachxlutz]

Friday Update:

I picked up a new Marineland 120 gallon 4'x2'x2' tank last night from Shac at Reefshac. It looks great and free of the scratches that have been driving me crazy on the used tank I bought. I'm heading out to Chattanooga in the morning for another big bike race and won't be back until Sunday evening. I'm going to drill the bulkhead holes Monday night, hopefully. That should put us right back on track. I'm thinking if I can get that done, plumb it back up and do a leak test I'm not too far off from bringing it inside from the garage and getting things rolling!

 

[merith82]

Congrats on what looks to be the making of a beautiful tank.

 

[zachxlutz]

Congrats on what looks to be the making of a beautiful tank.

Thanks, looking forward to spending some time working on it throughout the evenings this week.

 

[merith82]

Right on. Can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm currently in what's been and becoming a very long process of upgrading the tank in my room so trying to see what others with tanks in the same range are doing as I'm always open to new or better ideas


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[zachxlutz]

New Marineland tank... I took very careful measurements of the previously drilled holes in the old tank as I only wanted to drill holes this time around (measure twice, drill once!). I had no intentions of changing up the plumbing work:

Thankfully, I made all the plumbing very modular in the event I needed to change one part here or there... This made things infinitely easier in the dissasembly of the previous tank and reassembling here:

IT FITS! (I had my fingers crossed the whole time):

Paint applied to back of tank:

Filled with water for the leak test:

Shiny! No scratches or haziness:

Thoughts:
I'm a little disappointed I had this setback, but I know I'm going to be much happier in the long run. The leak test appears to be going smooth. It ran all night last night with no leaks. I assume I'll come home after work today to the same scene as I saw this morning. 170-ish gallons of water still contained within glass walls.

If all goes smoothly, I'll disassemble everything again and being working on reinforcing and painting the structural portion of the stand. I'm going to paint it with white appliance epoxy paint for a strong, somewhat waterproof coating. I'll be painting the inside of the canopy with the same white epoxy paint as well.

I need to get in the crawlspace under the house and add a few supports for under the tank and then I'll be bringing it inside to start filling it with water, salt, sand and live rock.

I'm getting excited! I placed an order today for new canopy cooling fans, live sand, refugium mud and a silicone insulation mat for the return pump to help keep the noise down.

Question:
I'm running 2x250w Metal Halide Lights in the canopy along with 2xPC lights. It's going to be hot. I'm thinking of running the fans in tandem. One on each side. One pulling air in and the other expelling air out. Does this seem like the best solution or would it be better to have them both pushing air into the canopy?

 

[zachxlutz]

Right on. Can't wait to see what you do with it. I'm currently in what's been and becoming a very long process of upgrading the tank in my room so trying to see what others with tanks in the same range are doing as I'm always open to new or better ideas


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Glad you're following along. I understand about it feeling like a long process. I've been working on this for over a month now!

 

[BigDave]

When I mounted my fans in a previous canopy, I mounted one fan on each end, both blowing in. I then installed a fan grate in the top of the canopy in the middle. Basically the cool air got pulled in from the sides, blown over both hot bulbs and then escaped out through the middle top.

 

[zachxlutz]

When I mounted my fans in a previous canopy, I mounted one fan on each end, both blowing in. I then installed a fan grate in the top of the canopy in the middle. Basically the cool air got pulled in from the sides, blown over both hot bulbs and then escaped out through the middle top.

Interesting. I'm going to do some tests when I get them. It shouldn't be hard to pin-point which method will work the best.

 

[zachxlutz]

Oh! Also, I'm picking up a Reefkeeper Elite system from my local reef club next week. This should help me get the whole system automated and hopefully make for a very clean install!

Temp, pH, Salinity and 3x power strips. SCORE!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Awesome! You're really doing it right. Taking your time, and enjoying each phase is the way to go.

On your question, I'm running two fans, with one blowing in at one end, at about light-level, and one blowing out at the other end, above light level. So, that's what I'd recommend. I suppose you could have them both blowing in, if there's plenty of ventilation for the air to escape easily. My hood does not.

That is going to be hot. You may want to take a hole saw to the top of your hood to help ventilate. Also, with a good reflector, you could easily go to just one metal halide.

 

[zachxlutz]

Awesome! You're really doing it right. Taking your time, and enjoying each phase is the way to go.

On your question, I'm running two fans, with one blowing in at one end, at about light-level, and one blowing out at the other end, above light level. So, that's what I'd recommend. I suppose you could have them both blowing in, if there's plenty of ventilation for the air to escape easily. My hood does not.

That is going to be hot. You may want to take a hole saw to the top of your hood to help ventilate. Also, with a good reflector, you could easily go to just one metal halide.

Thanks... They say patience is a virtue. It's certainly a virtue that requires work!

Unfortunately, the reflector is a very simple design so I'm just going to stick with what I have for now. I'll snap a pic tonight. Opening up a few more holes in the top is a good idea which I hadn't thought of.

I'm really hoping the canopy and lighting is a temporary situation until I can upgrade to a hung LED lighting system. They just look so clean!

 

[zachxlutz]

WE HAVE A TANK INSIDE THE HOUSE!

First things first, here's a picture of the system in it's final resting place:

Here is a quick run down of the latest steps I've taken to get it inside:

I painted the inside of the canopy with gloss white Appliance Epoxy to give the wood a nice uniform finish as well as provide a small amount of water resistance. The paint sets up as a very hard epoxy finish and will, fingers crossed, give me an easy surface to wipe down and keep clean. I also cleaned and re-mounted the lighting fixture inside the canopy. Previously it had wood screws holding it in and wasn't very secure so I drilled holes in the top of the canopy and used machine screws, washers and nuts to attach it. It's very easy to remove now if I need to service anything.

Sprayed and rolled with this product, Rust-Oleum Appliance Epoxy:

I also added some more 2x4s to the stand to create a safer and more stable base for the tank. After adding 5 more 2x4s I continued with the epoxy paint to, again, create a smooth uniform finish and provide some water resistance.

I painted the bottom with the same epoxy paint, but the plywood base was very porous and dry and wouldn't allow the epoxy to form a thick barrier like I had hoped and ended up looking like this:

That wasn't going to work, so I set off to Home Depot in hopes of a solution. I found some 12"x24" self-stick vinyl tile in a white marble finish. Turned out better than I hoped:

Here you can see it through the bottom of the sump, as well as testing locations for the heaters and my fancy silicone pump insulation.

 

[zachxlutz]

Finally, some more pictures of the tank it's final position:

Regarding the fans and cooling inside the canopy, I've got two 120mm fans pulling air from outside the canopy and directing it over the two metal halide bulbs. The air is exhausted through the opening in the back of the canopy. Initial tests (sticking my hand inside the canopy) point towards this being the best solution and the fans won't be subject to pulling hot, humid, salty air through themselves and risking a higher chance at corrosion.

I've got 150(ish) gallons of salt water mixing in the garage at the moment. I just need to go into the crawlspace tonight and add some supports under the joists to keep everything safe and then we'll be bringing in the live rock, sand, fuge mud and water and we'll be all set!

After we get the tank going and I'm comfortable with the way it's running, I'll add the skin and cabinet doors to the stand and put a final coat of paint on it.

We'll be adding another cabinet to the right of the tank to store the controller, power strips, etc as well as a 5-10 gallon auto top-off/kalkwasser container.

I'm so excited to get this thing going!

 

[Michael Hoaster]

Man, that is looking sweet!

I have a few suggestions.

On your hood, you may want to add felt or something, to fill the slight gap under the top, so light doesn't peek through.

Are you putting more lights in the hood? If not, consider moving the ones in there towards the front of the tank. You want the lights in front, so you are looking at the lit side of your fish, etc., as opposed to the shaded side.

It looks very nice in your dining room, but don't forget the most important species-you. You need a very comfy place to sit and observe the tank.